Aspirational apprenticeship: How the Youth Social Action apprenticeship has helped me empower learners and strengthen enrichment

A case study by Florence Smith-Drayson, Regional Enrichment Coordinator for the Youth Social Action Programme (Phase Three) and Youth Social Action Lead at Leeds City College.

Since being a young person myself, I have had an interest in children and young people's development, and after completing a BA Joint Honours in Art and Psychology at University of Reading, I was keen to work with young people, whether in arts, education or youth work, but found I lacked qualifications. I was attracted to the Youth Social Action Apprenticeship as it provided me with an opportunity to work with young people and gain a Youth Work qualification.

Although I had little knowledge of what social action was at first, I quickly realised that it was something I had been doing all my life, whether I was helping to improve my school community, running fundraisers, volunteering time at different organisations or attending campaign groups. I researched and learnt more, and my background in education, psychology, and the arts, supported me to develop an approach, which I delivered in the four institutions. I deepened my expertise in stakeholder engagement - something I had always loved doing in previous roles - which still supports me to this day.

As my apprenticeship came to an end, I was unsure where this path would take me, but I was offered the opportunity to continue at Leeds City College as a Social Action Leadership Coordinator and mentor for the Youth Social Action Programme. I could continue refining my offer in the delivery of social action projects and create a scalable approach that staff could use independently. Through the support of the incredible enrichment team, I introduced an enrichment programme dedicated to social action and developing the participating students. I had a vision for how social action could become embedded in the student voice model at the college and ran a trial for a year with a different approach to the traditional Course Reps model. This was recognised for its impact on the community and students, so the college decided to adopt a community organising approach for their student voice model.

Through training in coaching and mentoring and running regular sessions with two apprentice mentees, I learned a great deal about techniques and tools to support others. My knowledge of going through the journey myself assisted me, and I thoroughly enjoyed building relationships, helping others, and seeing people develop. The mentoring gave me insight into how more colleges operated and the different approaches needed to embed social action in different institutions and improved my ability to work with young people and colleagues.

By the end of phase two, I felt very confident in project management and organisation skills - I was able to manage sometimes thirty projects at a time. The role is dynamic, working with many different staff and young people; every day looks different, so I found the role incredibly exciting and fulfilling.

Towards the end of the second phase, AoC asked me to continue in the programme and become the first Regional Enrichment Coordinator (Yorkshire and Humber). Whilst piloting a brand new model was an incredible opportunity, it felt daunting at first.

I have been working on mapping out and understanding the organisations and offers in colleges; I am constantly learning and am eager to gain knowledge about the sector and partner with fantastic organisations that work with and develop young people. I can draw on coaching and mentoring knowledge to support colleges, and my experience with creating an offer for students and engaging them means I can bring real understanding and consideration to the role. There is a notable increase in enthusiasm and anticipation for enrichment at the moment and I am working to create something that is scalable and can be used in a national roll out to help enrichment programmes in colleges across the country. I am keen to see what impact can be made on the colleges and the lives of young people as we continue this work